Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a producer encounters a drunken oaf and his hooligans aboard an LA train, and then winds up commiserating with said band while making music together in a sleeper car until that fateful hangover morning, in which he finds himself robbed off his guitar but with a golden possession in his hands: the bands’ "reel to tape". That’s all in the past now, as Lewis Pesacov, better known for his contributions in Foreign Born and Fool’s Gold, has ever since molded the wisful country rock of El Sportivo (aka Daron Holloway) into an enticing proposition. Their debut LP with backing band the Blooz, Nights & Weekends, lingers with the passing of a gentle breeze through a wide-open desert, each lap steel riff and rambling bass motif marked with seamless precision. The music reflects its expansive scope as they drive off an open road with an anything goes predicament as if they were pursued with a looming sense of danger, accentuated with a prominent wall of guitars and slinky piano hooks that only enhance the sprawling nothingness in view. We never quite know the destination they lead, but we know that the journey is only a first out of the many that lie ahead. You can stream Nights and Weekends in its entirety by visiting their soundcloud page.
